The present invention relates to a headlight device for a vehicle for producing light bundles having different characteristics.
One of such headlight devices is disclosed for example in the German patent document DE 43 13 914 A1. This headlight device has several headlight units which produce correspondingly each light bundle with a predetermined characteristic. The headlight units are simultaneously operable in various combinations. For each characteristic of the light bundle, a separate headlight unit is provided, through which a light bundle with only one characteristic is produced. This requires a great manufacturing expense for the headlight device and moreover a great space consumption for accommodation of all headlight units.
Accordingly, it is an object of present invention to provide a headlight device for vehicles of the above mentioned general type, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art.
In keeping with these objects and with others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of present invention resides, briefly stated in a headlight device, in which at least one of the headlight units is formed so that light bundles with at least two different characteristics can be produced by the at least one headlight unit.
The headlight device in accordance with the present invention has the advantage that the number of the headlight units which is required for producing the light bundles with different characteristics can be reduced, and as a result the manufacturing expenses and the space consumption are reduced as well.
In accordance with anotherfeature of present invention at least one headlight unit is formed so that it produces alternatingly a light bundle with a low beam characteristic or a light bundle with a high beam characteristic. Thus, only one headlight unit is required.
In accordance with still a further feature of present invention, at least one headlight unit has a screen device with which it is possible to change illumination of the close region in front of the vehicle by the light bundle produced by the headlight unit, so that the illumination intensity in the close region can be weakened by the screen device. With this construction, it is possible to avoid a blinding of the opposite traffic in the event of wet streets.
In accordance with still a further feature of the present invention, the headlight unit is formed so that the course of the light bundle is produced by it is changeable in a horizontal direction. Thereby the direction of the light bundle emitted by the headlight unit can be adjusted to the course of the roadway or corresponding operational conditions of the vehicle.
In a still further embodiment of the present invention, at least one headlight unit is formed so that it produces a concentrated light bundle for illumination a distant region in front of the vehicle. Thereby an increased illumination of the distant region in front of the vehicle is possible.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, the headlight unit is formed so that the course of the light bundle produced by it can be changeable in a horizontal and/or vertical direction. This allows adaptation of the direction of the light bundle so that with low beam light the distant region under the bright-dark limit and with high beam light the distant region above the dark-bright limit is provided.
Still another feature of the present invention is that at least one headlight unit is formed so that it produces a light bundle oriented at one side, with which a substantially lateral region in front of the vehicle is illuminated. This embodiment makes possible an improved illumination, in particular over a curve travel.
Still another feature of present invention is that the headlight unit produces a light bundle oriented at one side, with which a lateral region is illuminated, which extends outwardly beyond the light bundle produced by the headlight unit with the low beam characteristic, or the characteristic for high beam with the illuminated region having a course which is changed in the horizontal direction. In this construction, with a small number of headlight units, it is possible to improve the illumination during driving over curves with a small curve radius and with a great curve radius.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the present invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.